Rotary valve device having a plurality of controlled working passages

ABSTRACT

Rotary valve device including stationary valve body means having stationary valve face means and rotary valve means having rotary valve face means sealingly engaging said stationary valve face means. Housing means surrounds said rotary valve means and defines therewith external fluid chamber means. Said rotary valve means has internal fluid chamber means and has a plurality of selectable operating positions with respect to said stationary valve body means. Actuating means is provided for actuating said rotary valve means from one selectable position to another. Said rotary valve means in one of said selectable positions blanking flow of fluid between said stationary valve face means and said rotary valve face means. Said stationary valve body means has at least one fluid port means therein. Said stationary valve face means and said rotary valve face means have registerable fluid passage means for selectably connecting said external and internal fluid chamber means in communication with said fluid port means.

United States Patent Woodling 1 ROTARY VALVE DEVICE HAVING A PLURALITYOF CONTROLLED WORKING PASSAGES George V. Woodling, 22077 Westlake Road,Rocky River, Ohio 441 16 [22] Filed: Mar. 2, 1972 [21] Appl. No.:231,106

[76] Inventor:

[52] US. Cl 137/625.24, 137/625.47, 251/175,

251/192 [51] Int. Cl. Fl6k 5/18 [58] Field of Search 251/175, 180, 192,

[451 July 3,1973

Primary Examiner-William R. Cline Attorney-George V. Woodling et a1.

[ 5 7 ABSTRACT Rotary valve device including stationary valve body meanshaving stationary valve face means and rotary valve means having rotaryvalve face means sealingly engaging said stationary valve face means.Housing means surrounds said rotary valve means and defines therewithexternal fluid chamber means. Said rotary valve means has internal fluidchamber means and has a plurality of selectable operating positions withrespect to said stationary valve body means. Actuating means is providedfor actuating said rotary valve means from one selectable position toanother. Said rotary valve means in one of said selectable positionsblanking flow of fluid between said stationary valve face means and saidrotary valve face means. Said stationary valve body means has at leastone fluid port means therein. Said stationary valve face means and saidrotary valve face means have registerable fluid passage means forselectably connecting said external and internal fluid chamber means incommunication with said fluid port means.

12 Claims, 16 Drawing Figures 8 \yaa valve 24 operates equally wellregardless of which fluid chamber is pressurized.

The shaft 21 is journalled in a cylindrical bearing surface 40 providedin the housing and extends through a central opening 45 in the bushing23 and has a cylindrical body portion 46 which fits into a central pilotrecess 47 in the rotary valve 24 for rotatively supporting same withinthe internal wall 36 of the counter-bore in the housing 20. The centralpilot recess 47 has two opposed bottom segtnental walls which define anoncircular opening having substantially two parallel sides 49 and 50.The cylindrical body portion 46 of the shaft 21 is provided with anon-rotative boss 48 having flat side walls terminating in segmentalstepped edges 64. The flat side walls of the boss 48 fit between the twosubstantially parallel sides 49 and 50 of the rotary valve 24 foractuating same upon operation of the handle 25. As seen best in FIG. 2,the sahft 21 is provided with a shoulder 60 for engaging the reactionwall 37, whereby the shaft is secured against axial movement outwardlyof the housing. The non-rotative boss 48 makes a slidable axialconnection with the two substantially parallel sides 49 and 50, and toprovide for this axial connection a small axial clearance 41 may beprovided between the stepped edges 64 of the shaft 21 and the bottomsegmental walls of the pilot recess 47 in the rotary valve 24 whichaccommodates for axial tolerance in mounting the shaft 21 relative tothe rotary valve.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 5, the bushing 23 has generally an I-I-shapedcross-section and comprises a rear flange 43 and a front flange 44interconnected by a cross bar 42. The bushing 23 may be held againstrotation by a dowel pin 61 which fits into a hole 62 in the reactionwall 37. The rear flange 43 has a braod annular shallow groove 63defined by an outer annular band 66 and an inner annular band 67 whichmake a metalto-metal fluid seal with the reaction wall 37 to definetherebetween a fluid cavity 68. The rear flange 43 is rendered axiallyflexible by the broad groove 63 and operates to resiliently urge therotary valve 24 against the stationary valve body 22 to preventclearance leakage therebetween. The rear flange 43 is also provided withtwo small holes 69 and 70 which provide for restricted flow of fluidinto and out of the fluid cavity 68. Thus, pressurized fluid in theannular external fluid chamber 38 on the outside of the annularcross-bar 42 may flow through the small opening 70 into the fluid cavity68 and thence outwardly therefrom through the small opening 69 into thespace on the inside of the annular cross-bar 42, whereupon the fluid maythen flow to exhaust into the central internal fluid chamber 39 of therotary valve 24. The restricted flow of the fluid into and out of thefluid cavity 68 causes the pressure therein to be of a reduced amount.This reduced pressure acts against the rear flange 43 and produces apiston effect to hydraulically constrain the rotary valve 24 against thestationary valve body 22 to prevent clearance leakage. It is found thatthe clearance leakage between the stationary valve body 22 and therotary valve 24 causes a hydraulic separating force which tends to urgethe rotary valve axially away from the stationary valve body 22. Thishydraulic separating force is opposed by the piston effect of thebushing, whereby a resultant force may always be provided to urge therotary valve against the stationary valve body to reduce the clearanceleakage. Accordingly, the bushing 23 operates as a fluid responsivemeans to oppose the separating force incident to the clearance leakagebetween the stationary valve body and the rotary valve.

The rotary valve 24 may be characterized as an outside-inside valve, inthat there is pressurized fluid around the outside thereof and exhaustpressure on the inside, or vice versa. The rotary valve is thushydraulically balanced in an axial direction by the bushing and in aradial direction by the outside-inside construction. The outside-insideconstruction of the rotary valve is also basic to the operation of thebushing (pistoneffect) which eliminates the necessity of thrust hearingsto axially support the rotary valve relative to the stationary valvebody.

FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 4 illustrate a four-way valve arrangement which isfurther detailed in FIGS. 5 to 16, wherein it is observed in FIG. 8 thatthe stationary valve body 22 has four valve orifices 73, 74, and 76 andthe rotary valve has two valve orifices 77 and '78, see FIG. 9. The twostationary valve orifices 73 and 75 are in constant fluid communicationwith the fluid port 29 and the two stationary valve orifices 74 and 76are in constant fluid communication with the fluid port 30. The rotaryvalve orifice 77 is in constant fluid communication with the externalfluid chamber 38 and the rotary valve orifice 78 is in constant fluidcommunication with the internal fluid chamber 39. To provide full flowaccess to the rotary valve orifice 77, the outside of the rotary valve24 may be provided with an external channel 79 eccentrically machinedtherearound, see FIGS. 9 to 12. The rotary valve orifice 77 constitutesan external radial slot, milled all the way across the rotary valve andis in fluid communication with the external channel 79. Full flow accessto the rotary valve orifice 78 may be provided by an internal radialslot 80, milled all the way across the rotary valve from the internalfluid chamber 39 to the orifice, see FIGS. 9, 11 and 12. The milled slot80 includes the two substantially parallel sides 49 and 50 which definethe noncircular opening into which the non-rotative boss 48 fits. It isto be noted that the rotary valve is of such a construction that it maybe entirely machined from a piece of bar stock without resorting to acored casting.

In operation, the rotary valve 24 has a closed selectable position andfirst and second open selectable positions, see FIG. 9, where position Ais the closed position, and positions B and C are respectively the firstand second open selectable positions. In position B, the rotary valveorifice 77 is in registration with the stationary valve orifice 73,whereby pressurized fluid may flow outwardly of the fluid port 29 to thecylinder, and the rotary valve orifice 78 is in registration with thestationary valve orifice 76, whereby exhaust fluid from the oppositeside of the cylinder may flow into the fluid port 30 and thence to theinternal fluid chamber 39 and then to the sump 27 through the fluid port31. In position C, the rotary valve orifice 77 is in registration withthe stationary valve orifice 74 and the rotary valve orifice 78 is inregistration with the stationary valve orifice 75, whereby the flow offluid to and from the cylinder is reversed from that of position B. Inposition A, the rotary valve 24 blanks flow of fluid to and from thecylinder. This four-way valve arrangement may be readily converted intoa three-way valve arrangement by screwing a plug 83 of FIG. 16 intoeither one of the two fluid ports 29 or 30 of FIG. 8. Thus, in athree-way valve arrangement only one of the two fluid ports 29 and 30 isoperative.

ROTARY VALVE DEVICE HAVING A PLURALITY OF CONTROLLED WORKING PASSAGESBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION My invention is directed to a rotary discvalve which may be rotatively supported by a shaft and actuated from oneposition to another relative to a stationary valve. My inventionfeatures an outside-inside rotary valve structure and thereby eliminatesthe necessity of thrust bearings for axially supporting the rotary valverelative to the stationary valve. Another advantage of theoutside-inside rotary valve structure is that the rotary valve itselfneed not be made with cored interconnecting ducts which usually requirethat the rotary valve be made of a cored casting. Still anotheradvantage results from the fact that my rotary valve may be constrainedagainst the stationary valve by hydraulic or resilient means to preventclearance leakage.

Accordingly, it is an object of my invention to eliminate the necessityof thrust bearings.

Another object is the provision of an outside-inside rotary disc valvewhich may be readily machined.

Another object is to hydraulically and resiliently urge the rotary valvein an axial direction against the stationary valve to prevent clearanceleakage.

Another object is the provision of a three-way and a four-way valvewhich may be readily converted from one to the other.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION My invention constitutes a rotary valve deviceincluding stationary valve body means having stationary valve facemeans, rotary valve means having rotary valve face means sealinglyengaging said stationary valve face means, housing means surroundingsaid rotary valve means and defining therewith external fluid chambermeans, said rotary valve means having internal fluid chamber means, saidrotary valve means having a plurality of selectable positions withrespect to said stationary valve body means, actuating means foractuating said rotary valve means from one selectable position toanother, said rotary valve means in one of said selectable positionsblanking flow of fluid between said stationary valve face means and saidrotary valve face means, said stationary valve body means having atleast first fluid port means therein, said stationary valve face meansand said rotary valve face means having registerable fluid passage meansfor selectively connecting said external and internal fluid chambermeans in communication with said fluid port means.

Other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had byreferring to the following description and claims, taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a rotary valve device embodying thefeatures of my invention, and illustrates four fluid ports;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view, taken along the line 2-2of FIG. 3,

FIG. 3 is a view taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. 1, showing an end viewof the rotary valve housing without the rotary valve being mountedtherein;

FIG. 4 is a representation showing how the four fluid ports may beconnected as a four-way valve for supplying fluid to and from a workcylinder;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of my bushing, taken along the line 5-5of FIG. 7 which hydraulically and resiliently constrains the rotaryvalve against a stationary valve to prevent clearance leakage;

FIG. 6 is a right-hand side (rear) view of the bushing in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a left-hand side (front) view of the bushing in FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a view taken along the line 8-8 of FIG. 2, showing the face ofthe stationary valve against which the rotary valve sealingly engages,and illustrating four stationary valve orifices;

FIG. 9 is a view taken along the line 9-9 of FIG. 2, showing the frontface only of the rotary valve which sealingly engages the stationaryvalve face in FIG. 8 and illustrating two rotary valve orifices;

FIG. 10 is a view looking toward a side of the rotary valve in FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view of the rotary valve, taken along thelines 11-11 of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view of the rotary valve, taken along theline 12-12 of FIG. 2, and illustrating a cross-section of a terminalportion of an actuating shaft disposed to fit within the rotary valve;

FIG. 13 is a representation of the actuating shaft;

FIG. 14 is a modified view of FIG. 8, illustrating two stationary valveorifices;

FIG. 15 is a modified view of FIG. 9, illustrating four rotary valveorifices; and

FIG. 16 is a view of a threaded port plug.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT My rotary valve device comprisesgenerally a rotary mounted in the housing, a stationary valve body 22connected to the left-hand end of the housing by cap screws 26 whichextend through holes 33, a bushing 23 mounted in the housing, and arotary valve 24 axially mounted between the stationary valve body 22 andthe bushing 23. The rotary valve 24 is rotatively supported by the shaft21 and is adapted to be actuated from one selectable position to anotherby a handle represented by a dash-dot line 25. For simplicity of thedrawings, the static and the shaft seals are not shown and all wearparts are made of bearing or hardenable material to give long life.

As shown in FIGS. 1-4, the housing 20 has a fluid port 28 and thestationary valve body 22 has three fluid ports 29, 30 and 31. Thisarrangement constitutes a four-way valve and may be used to direct fluidto and from a cylinder, diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 4, whereinthe fluid port 28 is preferably connected to a pump and the fluid port31 is connected to a sump 27. The bushing 23 and the rotary valve 24 aremounted in a counter-bore in the housing defined by an annular wall 36and a bottom or reaction wall 37 spaced substantially parallel to andaxially from the stationary valve body 22. The annular wall 36 is spacedoutwardly of the bushing 23 and the rotary valve 24 to provide anannular external fluid chamber 38 therearound which is in constant fluidcommunication with the fluid port 28, see FIG. 3. The inside of therotary valve 24 is pro vided with an internal fluid chamber 39 which isin constant fluid communication with the fluid port 31. Preferably, thefluid port 28 is connected to the pressurized source, whereby the shaft21 is free from exposure to high pressure which eliminates the necessityfor sealing the shaft for high pressure. However, the rotary In FIGS. 14and 15, the stationary valve body 22 has two valve orifices 84 and 8Sand the rotary valve has four valve orifices 86, 87, 88 and 89. Inposition A, fluid flow through the fluid ports are blanked. In positionB, the rotary valve orifices 87 and 88 are respectively in registrationwith the stationary valve orifices 84 and 85, and in position C, therotary valve orifices 86 and 89 are respectively in registration withthe sta- 'tionary valve orifices 84 and 85. Accordingly, it is to benoted that in position C, the flow of the fluid through the fluid ports29 and 30 is reversed from that in position B, wherein the arrangementconstitutes a four-way valve, and wherein it may be converted into athreeway valve by screwing the plug 83 of FIG. 16 into either one of thetwo fluid ports 29 or 30 in FIG. 14.

In my invention, the rotary valve 24 is axially balanced hydraulicallybetween the stationary valve body 22 and the front flange 44 of thebushing 23. To this end, the rotary valve orifices 77 and 78 in FIG. 9extend from one side of the rotary valve 24 across to the other side,whereby both sides of the rotary valve are identical. Also, the frontflange 44 of the bushing 23 is provided with four shallow recesses 90,91, 92 and 93, which respectively have an area substantially the same asthe four stationary valve orifices 73, 74, 75 and 76 and which aredisposed substantially directly opposite to them. Accordingly, in allpositions of the rotary valve, the hydraulic action on both sides of therotary valve is the same, with the result that the rotary valve 24 isdisposed to be hydraulically balanced between the stationary valve body22 and the front flange 44 of the bushing. For the valve arrangementshown in FIGS. 14

and 15, the front flange for the bushing is provided with only twoshallow recesses to hydraulically match the two stationary valveorifices 84 and 85, otherwise the bushing 23 remains the same.

The present disclosure includes that contained in the appended claims,as well as that of the foregoing description. Although this inventionhas been described in its preferred form with a certain degree ofparticularity, it is understood that the present disclosure of thepreferred form has been made only by way of example and that numerouschanges in the details of the construction and the combination andarrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from thespirit and the scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

What is claimed is:

1. Rotary valve device including stationary valve body means havingstationary valve face means, rotary valve means having first and secondsides, said first side including rotary valve face means sealinglyengaging said stationary valve face means, housing means surroundingsaid rotary valve means and defining therewith external fluid chambermeans, said housing means having housing fluid port means in constantcommunication with said external fluid chamber means, said stationaryvalve body means having at least first and second valve fluid portmeans, said stationary valve face means having at least first and secondfluid passage orifice means respectively in constant communication withsaid first and second valve fluid port means, said rotary valve meanshaving internal fluid chamber means in constant communication with saidsecond fluid passage orifice means and said second valve fluid portmeans, said rotary valve means having first, second and third selectablepositions with respecfto said stationary valve body means, actuatingmeans for actuating said rotary valve means from one selectable positionto another, said rotary valve means in said second selectable positionblanking flow of fluid between said stationary valve face means and saidrotary valve face means, said rotary valve means in said firstselectable position having first valve fluid passage means in regis-'tration with said first fluid passage orifice means to connect saidhousing fluid port means and said first valve fluid port means incommunication with each other and in said third selectable positionhaving second valve fluid passage means in registration with said secondfluid passage orifice means to connect said first and second valve fluidport means in communication with each other, said housing means havingreaction wall means, said second side of said rotary valve meansincluding rotary reaction face means facing but spaced from saidreaction wall means, and bushing means disposed between said reactionwall means and said rotary reaction face means, said bushing meansincluding first and second end flange means interconnected by an annularcross-bar, one of said flange means being resilient and being underaxial restraint to urge said rotary valve face means sealingly againstsaid stationary valve face means.

2. The structure of claim 1, wherein said stationary valve body meanshas third valve fluid port means therein, said stationary valve facemeans having third fluid passage orifice means in constant communicationwith said third valve fluid port means, said rotary valve means in saidfirst selectable position also having said second valve passage means inregistration with said third fluid passage orifice means to connect saidsecond and said third valve fluid port means in communication with eachother.

3. The structure of claim 1, wherein said first end flange means engagessaid reaction wall means and said second end flange means engages saidrotary reaction means.

4. The structure of claim 3, wherein said end flange means is axiallyresilient for urging said first rotary valve means against saidstationary valve body means.

5. The structure of claim 3, wherein said first end flange means defineswith said reaction wall means fluid pressure responsive means.

6. The structure of claim 3, wherein said bushing means comprisesgenerally an I-I-shaped cross section.

7. The structure of claim 3, wherein said second end flange means hasfluid recess means therein registerable with said valve passage means insaid rotary valve means.

8. The structure of claim 1, wherein said actuating means includes shaftmeans for rotatively supporting said rotary valve means.

9. The structure of claim 8, wherein said shaft means and said rotaryvalve means have axially slidable connection means therebetween.

' 10. The structure of claim 1, wherein one of said valve face means hasfour fluid passage means and wherein the other has two fluid passagemeans, said two fluid passage means in said first selectable positionrespectively registering with two of said four fluid passage means andin said third selectable position respectively registering with theother two of said four fluid passage means.

1 1. The structure of claim 10, wherein said stationary valve face meansincludes said four fluid passage means and wherein said rotary valveface means includes said two fluid passage means.

12. The structure of claim 10, wherein said rotary valve face meansincludes said four fluid passage means and wherein said stationary valveface means includes said two fluid passage means.

I I! l l I!

1. Rotary valve device including stationary valve body means having stationary valve face means, rotary valve means having first and second sides, said first side including rotary valve face means sealingly engaging said stationary valve face means, housing means surrounding said rotary valve means and defining therewith external fluid chamber means, said housing means having housing fluid port means in constant communication with said external fluid chamber means, said stationary valve body means having at least first and second valve fluid port means, said stationary valve face means having at least first and second fluid passage orifice means respectively in constant communication with said first and second valve fluid port means, said rotary valve means having internal fluid chamber means in constant communication with said second fluid passage orifice means and said second valve fluid port means, said rotary valve means having first, second and third selectable positions with respect to said stationary valve body means, actuating means for actuating said rotary valve means from one selectable position to another, said rotary valve means in said second selectable position blanking flow of fluid between said stationary valve face means and said rotary valve face means, said rotary valve means in said first selectable position having first valve fluid passage means in registration with said first fluid passage orifice means to connect said housing fluid port means and said first valve fluid port means in communication with each other and in said third selectable position having second valve fluid passage means in registration with said second fluid passage orifice means to connect said first and second valve fluid port means in communication with each other, said housing means having reaction wall means, said second side of said rotary valve means including rotary reaction face means facing but spaced from said reaction wall means, and bushing means disposed between said reaction wall means and said rotary reaction face means, said bushing Means including first and second end flange means interconnected by an annular cross-bar, one of said flange means being resilient and being under axial restraint to urge said rotary valve face means sealingly against said stationary valve face means.
 2. The structure of claim 1, wherein said stationary valve body means has third valve fluid port means therein, said stationary valve face means having third fluid passage orifice means in constant communication with said third valve fluid port means, said rotary valve means in said first selectable position also having said second valve passage means in registration with said third fluid passage orifice means to connect said second and said third valve fluid port means in communication with each other.
 3. The structure of claim 1, wherein said first end flange means engages said reaction wall means and said second end flange means engages said rotary reaction means.
 4. The structure of claim 3, wherein said end flange means is axially resilient for urging said first rotary valve means against said stationary valve body means.
 5. The structure of claim 3, wherein said first end flange means defines with said reaction wall means fluid pressure responsive means.
 6. The structure of claim 3, wherein said bushing means comprises generally an H-shaped cross section.
 7. The structure of claim 3, wherein said second end flange means has fluid recess means therein registerable with said valve passage means in said rotary valve means.
 8. The structure of claim 1, wherein said actuating means includes shaft means for rotatively supporting said rotary valve means.
 9. The structure of claim 8, wherein said shaft means and said rotary valve means have axially slidable connection means therebetween.
 10. The structure of claim 1, wherein one of said valve face means has four fluid passage means and wherein the other has two fluid passage means, said two fluid passage means in said first selectable position respectively registering with two of said four fluid passage means and in said third selectable position respectively registering with the other two of said four fluid passage means.
 11. The structure of claim 10, wherein said stationary valve face means includes said four fluid passage means and wherein said rotary valve face means includes said two fluid passage means.
 12. The structure of claim 10, wherein said rotary valve face means includes said four fluid passage means and wherein said stationary valve face means includes said two fluid passage means. 